To Serve With Love

To Serve With Love

Favourite Childhood Vacations

As a child, I was an extremely fussy eater, mealtimes were unpleasant as I tried everyone’s patience at the table, toying around with my food rather than eating it. During the summer vacations I went to my grandparents house - my grandparents would pick the freshest vegetables from their kitchen garden and cook them in wonderful earthen pots. They knew that it was difficult to get farm-fresh vegetables in cities. The aroma that would waft through the kitchen would fill up the house, drawing all family members to the dining room. But of course, I wasn’t interested.

Cooking And Eating Acts Of Love

Then one day, when we returned from a visit to an aunt’s house, I found grandpa pottering around in the kitchen. He was an adorable man, the outdoor type, who never did much around the home. I was delighted to see that he had actually cooked something for us. It was brinjal cooked with some basic ingredients off the kitchen shelf. I was so overwhelmed by the fact that grandpa had cooked for us, that I polished off a big portion with relish. It was the first time I’d ever eaten brinjal without a fuss. That’s when I learnt that cooking and eating are reciprocal acts of love.

Dishing Up Love, Serving Up Passion

I still associate food with the same feeling I experienced all those years ago in my grandparents’ kitchen. I might not consider myself a great cook , but cooking a simple, nutritious meal for the family fills me with satisfaction. I like to think of it as dishing up love in steaming mugs of soup or serving up passion in sweet bowls of dessert. Very basic, very simple. Isn’t that how life should be?

Cooking Is Therapeutic

Cooking is creative and therapeutic - except when the milk boils over, the gravy sticks to the pan, or you cut your finger, instead of the onion. And my time in the kitchen always teaches me something. I want my life to be just like my experience of cooking; making a mess sometimes, creating a wonder other times, and just losing myself in the process.

Experiment And Enjoy

And whether it is living life, or cooking, I don’t like to beat myself up about following recipes to perfection, but just love to experiment and enjoy. It’s the recipes you create yourself that are the best!

Om Namah Shivay.